Russia, Ukraine Agree Prisoner-of-War Exchange

Ukrainian and Russian officials met in Istanbul yesterday to negotiate an end to the war – though each side came out of those talks with different goals and agendas.

The meeting between a delegation from Kyiv and Moscow capped off a week of diplomacy that saw world leaders descend on Turkey for a series of talks in Ankara, Antalya and finally Istanbul. It was there that officials from Russia and Ukraine met face-to-face today for the first time in three years.

Meanwhile, European leaders gathered a thousand kilometres away in the Albanian capital of Tirana, where some of Kyiv’s closest allies – France, the UK, Poland and Germany – joined US President Donald Trump on a call to discuss the progress of those negotiations.

Ukraine entered the talks in Istanbul hoping to move forward on their most urgent objective – a full and unconditional ceasefire – though that remained elusive, writes Orla Guerin, our international correspondent in Istanbul. The two sides did agree to swap 1,000 prisoners-of-war each.

Ukraine says their next goal is for Russian President Putin to meet directly with Zelensky – though there’s still no sense if or when that meeting could happen, as Russia only said it had “taken note” of the request.